The northern side of the tip of Cape St Lawrence

Photo #1 shows the northern coast out to the very end of Cape St Lawrence. At the middle left is the curved hollow seen on the previous page. The automated light stands on the cliff above the tip, which runs out to the far right as a series of rocks in the water. Once a long time ago, I would imagine that the cliffs ran out that far too, but they have been reduced to their present form by æons of abuse by the elements.

Photo #2 looks at the shore just east of the automated light, lined by sheer cliffs with gravel beaches below. Bear Hill is at the left and it is now possible to see more of the gravel flanks at the far left. The Lighthouse Trail (also known as the Cape St Lawrence Trail) passes between Bear Hill and the unnamed mountain at the right of the photo as it climbs up towards the ridge seen in the far distance in the middle of the photo, from which it descends into the hamlet of Meat Cove.

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Photo #3 is a close-up view of the beach at the centre of photo #2. The cliff above shows the same layered red and grey/slate tiers seen further east along this shore. Some driftwood has been pushed to the rear of the beach by the strong waves which slam into this headland.

Photo #4 overlaps slightly with photo #3, but shows more of the cliff to the right. It is rather interesting, as the cliff face at the middle, although apparently of the much same material as the cliffs to the left and the right, has markedly horizontal strata, while those on the bottom left and at the right are distinctly tilted, each at roughly the same angle and direction. This photo also gives a pretty good idea of the thickness of the soil lying atop these rocks—hardly 30 cm (a foot) deep, if that. Yet the profusion of wildflowers growing here is well known; Haynes (first edition) wrote: “These hills are an amazingly fertile area for orchids, some found nowhere else in the province; no one seems to know why, exactly. Flower-lovers flock here regularly to find unique plants.” [p. 93]

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Photo #5 is a final backwards glance at the northern shore, a telephoto view taken due west of the tip of Cape St Lawrence. The prominence of the white rock, even though it is in the shade here, is hard to ignore. The remaining photos in this essay will be looking at the western shore of Inverness County as it proceeds to the south. But what a feature-rich coast the northern shore is! It really takes a boat ride to bring out all the details: from the vantage point at Black Point seen on the first page of this essay, the best one on land of which I am aware (the terrain obscures the westward view from the summit of Little Grassy), the features can be made out once one knows they are there, but the effect is nothing like it is when seeing them up close and in one’s face.